Posts Tagged ‘questions’

 

Breisheit: About the Rainbow

Posted on: October 17th, 2014 by Alden

Seeing a rainbow brings an immediate sense of beauty and awe, a sense of the wonder of creation, which is why I’ve selected it for Breisheit. This is from series of prayers in the voice of the one who has a question that doesn’t need an answer. Other prayers in this series include “About the Heavens” and “About Shabbat.” To listen along, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

 

About the Rainbow
Majestic Sovereign,
Source of beauty,
When did You decide
To create the rainbow?
Was this Your design?
Or perhaps it was a
Fantastic discovery
The moment Your Divine Light
Burst through the firmament of heaven?
Did You know that
Your Glory
Could be refracted
Through a simple lens of water?
Or were awe and wonder created
When You first saw
Your own colors,
When You gasped
At Your own brilliant light
Arching across a deep blue sky?

© 2010 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: Here are links to “For Creation, the prayer I posted for Breisheit 5773, and “This is the Place,” the prayer I posted for Breisheit 5774. This prayer first appeared on this site on October 5, 2010.

Please check out my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer,” and This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day. For reprint permissions and usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” To receive my latest prayers via email, please subscribe (on the home page). You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo Credit: ScienceBlogs.com

About Miracles

Posted on: August 8th, 2014 by Alden

Evening Sun and GrassThis a new meditation in the voice of the one who has a question that doesn’t need an answer. It’s written, of course, in the voice of the Spiritual Traveler. Prayers in this series include: “About the Rainbow,” “About the Heavens” and “About Shabbat.”

About Miracles
Majestic Sovereign,
Source of awe and wonder,
When did You decide
To make daily miracles so simple,
So gentle, so quiet and so small?
Did our fear of Your Voice
Echoing from the mountain top
Push You away?
Or was this Your plan all along?
To show us Your Glory
In fire and smoke,
In the parted sea,
In the darkness and in the light,
And then to draw away
So that we would
Yearn for You to be near,
So that we would yearn
For your power and might,
For Your holiness
And for Your salvation?
Or are You waiting, patiently,
To return, again, with signs
And with wonders?

© 2014 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: Other prayers in the voice of the spiritual traveler include: “Come Walk” and “Rejoice!” See also: “About the Rainbow,” “About the Heavens” and “About Shabbat.”

Please consider making a contribution to support this site and my writing. For usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” For notices of new prayers, please subscribe. You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Digital Library

All is Well

Posted on: July 10th, 2012 by tobendlight

Evening Sun and GrassThis was inspired by the following quote from Fr. Anthony DeMello: “Spirituality means waking up… All mystics — Catholic, Christian, non-Christian — they’re all unanimous, no matter what their theology, no matter what their religion, they’re all unanimous on one thing. That one thing is: All is well. All is well. Everything’s in a mess. And all is well. Strange paradox. But tragically most people never get to see that. They never get to see that all is well because they’re asleep…”

All is Well
In the hills and in the valleys,
In the wind and in the clouds,
In the rivers and in the oceans,
All is well.

In the rain and in the rapids,
In the storm and in the gale,
In the tempest and in the squall,
All is well.

Oh, to live in this music.
All is well.
Oh, to live in this song.
This loveliness. This beauty.
This knowing.
This dance.
The chill at dawn and
The breeze at dusk.
These endings. These beginnings.
All is well.

In my courage and in my fear,
In my honor and in my shame,
In my silence and in my thunder.
The hawk and the owl,
The egret and the crane.
The updraft and the horizon.
The downdraft and the breaking sea.
Soaring, soaring.
All is well.

© 2012 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: Anthony “Tony” de Mello (Sept. 4, 1931 – June 2, 1987) was a Jesuit priest and psychotherapist who became widely known for his books on spirituality. If you like this piece, be sure to check out “Come Walk.” Other songs and prayers of the Spiritual Traveler include: “Come Walk,” “Bird is Bird,” “River,” “Soarbird” and “I am Breathing.” Click here for the entire list of songs of the Spiritual Traveler.

For usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” For notices of new prayers, please subscribe. You can also connect on Facebook and TwitterPlease consider making a contribution to support this site and my writing.

Photo Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Digital Library


About the Rainbow

Posted on: October 5th, 2010 by tobendlight

fire-rainbowThis is from a series of prayer/poems written in the voice of the spiritual traveler; specifically, it’s the voice of one who has a question that doesn’t need an answer. Other prayers in this series include “About the Heavens” and “About Shabbat.” This piece appears in This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer from CCAR Press.

About the Rainbow
Majestic Sovereign,
Source of beauty,
When did You decide
To create the rainbow?
Was this Your design?
Or perhaps it was a
Fantastic discovery
The moment Your Divine Light
Burst through the firmament of heaven?
Did You know that
Your Glory
Could be refracted
Through a simple lens of water?
Or were awe and wonder created
When You first saw
Your own colors,
When You gasped
At Your own brilliant light
Arching across a deep blue sky?

© 2021 CCAR Press from This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer

Postscript: Other prayers in the voice of the spiritual traveler include: “Come Walk” and “Rejoice!

Please check out my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer,” and This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day. For reprint permissions and usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” To receive my latest prayers via email, please subscribe (on the home page). You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo Credit: ScienceBlogs.com

“Alden has become one of Reform Judaism’s master poet-liturgists…" - Religion News Service, Dec. 23, 2020

“Mesmerizing, spiritual, provocative, and thoughtful, Alden was everything you would want in a guest scholar and teacher.” – Rabbi Denise L. Eger, Congregation Kol Ami, Los Angeles, and Past President, CCAR

"Alden Solovy has become one of the most revered liturgists of the last decade…" - Jewish Post & Opinion, March 29, 2023

“Alden left everyone feeling inspired.” – Cantor Jeri Robins, Shabbat Chair, NewCAJE6